Research Discovers Reward, Aversion Behaviours Activated Through Same Brain Pathways

Research Discovers Reward, Aversion Behaviours Activated Through Same Brain Pathways

St. Louis, MO (Scicasts) — New research may help explain why drug treatments for addiction and depression don’t work for some patients. The conditions are linked to reward and aversion responses in the brain. Working in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered brain pathways linked to reward and aversion behaviours are in such close proximity that they unintentionally could be activated at the same time. The findings suggest that drug treatments for addiction and depression simultaneously may stimulate reward and aversion responses, resulting in a net effect of zero in some patients. The research is published online Sept. 2 in the journal Neuron. “We studied the neurons that cause activation of kappa opioid receptors, which are involved in every kind of addiction –…